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1500 questions
44
votes
3 answers
Is ending question sentences with の really feminine?
In What differences should I look out for between male vs female speech?, a lot of answers explicitly mention that ending question sentences with の is feminine.
However, this makes very little sense to me, as my understanding is that の is pretty…
Darius Jahandarie
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43
votes
5 answers
When do you use 下さい as opposed to ください
I've noticed that there seems to be different usage for 下さい and ください. Is this purely a personal preferences or is there an actual difference their usage?
This was actually a question the Japanese people at my work had a discussion about, but…
Mark Hosang
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42
votes
5 answers
Is it proper to thank waitstaff, cashiers, etc. for their service?
In my Japanese class we were taught that one does not need to thank a cashier when they check you out or a server when they bring you your meal, but I always feel awkward remaining silent. Was my sensei wrong? Specifically:
What is the usual…
Amanda S
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42
votes
4 answers
What does -komu (～込む) at the end of a word mean?
There are loads of words in Japanese which end in 込{こ}む, like 吸{す}い込む, 読{よ}み込む, 入{はい}り込む, 打{う}ち込む, 売{う}り込む, 送{おく}り込む, 押{お}し込む. How does adding ～込む change the meaning? What is the meaning that links all these words?
nevan king
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42
votes
4 answers
Why was both katakana and hiragana created?
Nowadays, katakana tends to be used for gairaigo and onomatopoeia, while hiragana tends to be used for native Japanese words. This is a slight simplification - more information is available here.
However, English loanwords weren't a major concern…
Golden Cuy
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42
votes
1 answer
How do parents obscure spoken messages in front of their children in Japanese?
Let's say I'm a very young child and I love dessert. After my family goes out today, my dad is going to buy us ice cream; he needs to tell my mom in front of me, without me finding out. In English, he might spell it out like:
After ..., we'll go…
Cat
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41
votes
4 answers
How did "little tsu" become a lengthener?
How did it come about historically that っ preceding a sound would geminate it? Is it really a little つ or are they just near homomorphs?
WAF
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41
votes
2 answers
Why is Katakana not pronounced Katagana?
I am a beginner in Japanese and I've noticed that when two words are compounded into one word the first letter of the second word changes.
hira + kana = hiragana
ko + hayashi = kobayashi
ori + kami = origami
This pattern would imply that the word…
Kantura
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41
votes
6 answers
Does -ou / -you / -mashou conjugation have a negative form?
Does the -ou / -you / -mashou (the "let's X") form have a negative counterpart? For example, how do I say "let's not X" for the following?:
行こう
食べよう
寝ましょう
As far as I can remember, the Japanese courses I took in college did not teach me the…
Lukman
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41
votes
3 answers
Usage of なんて and なんか as emphasis
When are なんて and なんか used as emphasis in casual speech? Are they used when you're surprised, angry or can it be both? What sort of feeling does it convey to the listener compared to a normal sentence without it.
For example, in the following 3…
phirru
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41
votes
2 answers
けど at the end of the sentence?
According to dictionaries, 「けど」 means ‘but’, ‘although’, ‘however’.
However, it seems to have slightly another meaning at the end of the sentence. For example, here are few example sentences with their approximate translations (correct me if I'm…
Anton Strogonoff
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41
votes
7 answers
Difference between katakana so and n
I am having high confusion between katakana n ン and katakana so ソ. They look very similar even with the different stroke directions, they look very similar. Could anyone suggest how to differentiate between them?
abkds
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41
votes
3 answers
How indistinguishable is blue from green really?
青 ao seems to be used very much interchangeably for both blue and green. Why is that so, and how does 緑 midori play into this?
deceze
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40
votes
3 answers
寝る vs. 眠る, what's the real difference?
What's the real, definite difference between [寝]{ね}る and [眠]{ねむ}る?
I know they both mean "sleep", but also that each carries some additional (sometimes, figurative) meanings.
Where do the meanings overlap? In what scenarios are they…
istrasci
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40
votes
3 answers
What is the difference between -さ and -み suffixes to make a noun out of an adjective?
For example, both 悲しさ and 悲しみ are glossed as “sadness” in JMdict. What's the difference?
According to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, 〜み “is more emotive and concrete characterization of some state”, while 〜さ “describes, in an analytical…
pingish
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